Lexington Farmers Market

The Problem

While the Lexington Farmers Market was located at the University of Kentucky, it was run for university faculty and staff and community members, because the market runs mostly during summer break. With the campus being pretty empty during those months, they needed a way to get people to the campus farmers market. On top of that, they were having trouble developing a database of people that had a genuine interest in the market. At the start of the market season, it was incredibly slow in terms of sales and attendance. And because of that, vendor turnout was low, too.

The SFC Solution:

People love to show their support for local farmers... and that really got people.Karen, Lexington Farmers Market

Partway through the season the Lexington Farmers Market decided to try FarmFan as a way to remind people to come to the market. They used the loyalty feature of FarmFan in order to incentivize people to attend the market. Every time a person attended, they received a point, and were able to earn rewards.

People just liked being a part of something, almost like it was a special little club. Like, ‘yeah, I’m a FarmFan!’ And they really bought into that idea.Karen, Lexington Farmers Market

The Result

By August of their first season with FarmFan their small market, which had been slow at the beginning, had 262 subscribers. Their FarmFan base has continued to grow.

The weekly reminder made a significant difference in getting people to remember to come to the market, specifically repeat customers. A lot of people said that if they didn’t get the text they would have forgotten to come.

In addition to increasing attendance and sales, FarmFan increased engagement with the people, who were really excited to be associated with this community fixture.